This invention relates to apparatus for drawing and painting and more particularly to a device for use in combination with an artist's frame-mounted working surface and a mahl-stick to provide a more stable support for the end of the mahl-stick in use.
A favored working medium of artists, sign painters, cartographers, delineators and the like is a canvas, cardboard, or working surface of other material mounted on a hollow rectangular frame. The frame is then supported with the working surface in a generally vertical plane by means of an easel or the like providing free and flexible access for the artist to all points on the working surface and orienting the work in the position in which it is to be viewed.
Heretofore, various complicated slides and supporting or shielding mechanisms and devices have been provide for the use of artists and the like in producing a work on a working surface oriented in a generally horizontal plane. U.S. Pat. Nos. 632,821 to Mitchell; 2,814,142 to Warwick; 2,815,600 to Caudle; and 3,101,568 to Tratt are representative of the prior art. The expense and complication of such devices is not only justified when the work surface is oriented horizontally in order to enable the artist to reach all areas of the work surface, but required, if smudging of the working surface by contacts of the hand of the artist is to be eliminated. However, such mechanisms and devices have the disadvantage of tending to limit the free expression of the artist by confining his hand movements to generally straight lines at right angles to the frame in the plane immediately adjacent the working surface.
Although orientation of the working surface in a generally vertical plane is favored for the reasons first given above and because it tends to allow greater freedom of movement of the artist's hand thereby removing all restriction from the artist's expression of his theme, it is often necessary to apply different colors contiguous to previously applied, but still wet, colors. This requires great steadiness of hand which, coupled with the fact that it is sometimes necessary to draw straight lines, long ago resulted in the use of a "mahl-stick" in combination with generally vertically oriented working surfaces.
In essence, a mahl-stick serves both as a guide and as a support for the artist's hand or arm adjacent the working surface. It is generally a round stick or rod, of a convenient length, that is held at one end in the free hand of the artist with its other end in contact with the canvas or frame. Thus, the mahl-stick can provide a "bridge" across previously applied wet paint or a "straight edge" against which the artist may rest his hand or arm for increased steadiness in his work.
However, the free end of the mahl-stick can slip along the frame or canvas and the support provided by the mahl-stick is shakey and leaves something to be desired.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device for use in combination with the mahl-stick and frame mounted vertical working surface which introduces greater steadiness into the system.
It is a further object of this invention to provide the above increased steadiness without limiting the freedom of motion and expression provided by the mahl-stick and frame mounted vertical working surface.